


The Legend of Katara

by ItsaVikingThing



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: I have some thoughts about Katara, If you'll indulge my attempt at a glimpse into her mind, Set in Book 2 of Legend of Korra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 10:04:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16553726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsaVikingThing/pseuds/ItsaVikingThing
Summary: Unalaq's soldiers come to the compound, seeking to turn what was once Korra's home into a military outpost and arrest anyone who gets in their way.But the compound is still home to a legend. Katara has set up a hospital in the compound and offered shelter to those fleeing the occupying Northern Forces.Katara hopes that she can claim neutrality for the compound, and that reason will prevail.But if it doesn't, Katara very much intends to get in the way...





	The Legend of Katara

**Author's Note:**

> I have been thinking about Katara a lot, lately. This is what comes of that, I guess.

The White Lotus guard raises his arm and points towards the lights of Harbour City. "Look. Soldiers coming. They're Northern Water Tribe. We don't have much time."

Katara looks, but her eyes aren't what they once were. It doesn't matter. She knows exactly what is coming. Since Unalaq's troops arrived in the bay, unrest and agitation have been in the air. Frightened families have been trickling out of the city all day, and many of them have found their way to the compound that used to be home to the Avatar and is still home to Katara.

"I think that for now you should go inside, Branaq," Katara says. "There may be a few more stragglers out there, but they'll stay hidden until Unalaq's soldiers are gone. There will be time then."

"I don't...think it will be that simple."

Katara smiles at him. "Neither do they, I imagine. But words will serve better than swords here, Captain. We do not know how long this state of affairs will last, but we should plan for the long-term. We must be neutral. After all, they can summon reinforcements. We cannot."

Branaq winces and guiltily lets go of the hilt of his blade. He gestures to his men to go back into the compound. He looks down at Katara. "Surely you don't intend to address them...outside the gate?"

"I do," Katara says calmly, a lifetime of practice ensuring that her irritation does not cause so much as a ripple in the smooth surface of her tone. "Locked gates and armed guards are little more than provocation to angry men. But an open gate and an old woman? That will stop them, and get them talking. And if we get them talking, we might get them thinking, and if they start thinking...I'm confident that we'll find a peaceful resolution."

"But--"

Katara resists a sigh, if only because she doesn't have the energy to spare for it. "Branaq. They are military men. If they see a fortress, their training will dictate that they take it. If they see a hospital, a place of shelter, then respect for the sick, and for the children here will compel them to leave us be."

Branaq nods reluctantly, but still he hesitates.

Katara's hearing isn't what it used to be, but she can hear the thought processes crystallising in his mind. The compound they're standing outside of is a White Lotus stronghold, gifted by the government of the Southern Water Tribe for the protection of the Avatar. Avatar Korra is out there, somewhere, probably trying to formulate a response to the violent takeover of Harbour City by Unalaq's Northern Water Tribe Forces. There will be no guidance coming from the Avatar, even if a man of thirty like Branaq would listen to a girl of eighteen like Korra.

Since Korra left, the compound has become a hospital and refuge under Katara's command. But this is a military situation, and however revered Master Katara the healer might be, she isn't looked to for tactical advice. Kindly old Katara might have convinced the White Lotus to open the compound to families fleeing the troops tightening their grip on the city tonight, but no one expects Kindly old Katara to actually protect anyone. Katara is _old_ , after all. Her fighting days are long in the past.

And if it should come to violence, and something should happen to the wife of Avatar Aang, the mother of Master Airbender Tenzin, the close personal friend of Fire Lord Zuko, one of the last surviving heroes of the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai...well, the fool who let _that_ happen would secure his place in history for all the wrong reasons.

Branaq opens his mouth, but Katara raises her hand, cutting him off.

"I'll be fine. I don't imagine that the soldiers of the Northern Water Tribe have forgotten the part I played in defending their homeland." Branaq's eyes say that these soldiers' grandfathers would remember, that their fathers might, but them? Katara pats his hand. "Go. And remember, no sign of you or your men outside the hospital building. They must see a refuge, not a fortress. They won't hurt me, Captain Branaq. Go."

He bites his lip, but although Branaq is White Lotus, he is also Southern Water Tribe, and while her name isn't what it used to be, she is still Katara. He bows his head, and does his best to mask his uncertainty when he says, "Yes, Master Katara."

He leaves her in the snow, before the gate of the compound, to await the arrival of Unalaq's soldiers.

Katara lowers herself slowly to the ground and sits a few feet in front of the gate under the light of the moon. She waits.

Katara has never liked waiting, and while she isn't as fast as she used to be, and she grows tired more easily, she does her best every day to ensure that she is doing _something_. Idle time hangs more heavily on her the older she gets, it seems. Perhaps it's her awareness of how little time she has left.

Perhaps it's the temptation and the danger of reliving memories of long ago, how close they press when she has no work to keep them at bay.

Katara closes her eyes, but she resists the pull of the past and focuses on her breathing, and on the snow beneath her, and the ice beneath it, the way it shifts so slowly, all the time. It took her decades to learn how to listen for it. Katara stretches out her awareness to all the forms of water around her, smiling faintly when they respond to her, ice and snow and water that flows.

There was a time when she wielded them all in battle, and she was a hero then, of a sort. But when the fighting is done, the war is ended, when the hopes of the many turn to making a better world, then it is healers who are needed, not fighters. Water is the element of change, and water is Katara's element, and as war gave way reluctantly to peace, Katara gave herself over to the role of a healer.

And to the role of a mother, a grandmother, a teacher, a mentor. The girl she was, so fierce, so swift to leap into battle, is a memory she carries within her, but it was only ever a part of who she was. Those memories do not weigh so heavily on her, anymore.

But sometimes...sometimes the memories, the myths, the _stories_ of that girl, the ones that other people bear, threaten to topple her. Katara's knees are not what they used to be. She can't bear the burden of legend. Aang could always find a way to float above it, with a grin or a joke, but that has never been Katara's knack.

"You even found a way to dodge the worst of old age, Aang," she whispers. "There are so many kinds of pain you have avoided."

She waits in silence after that, until the snow tells her that the soldiers have come.

Katara opens her eyes to find some twenty men spread out in a skirmish line as they approach the gate to the compound. Some are armed, but half a dozen are not. 

Waterbenders.

A lieutenant with cold eyes and a mouth like a fissure in a glacier raises his arm and clenches his fist. Silently his men come to a halt ten paces from Katara. The lieutenant raises an eyebrow. "I thought the White Lotus guarded this place?"

Katara offers a smile to him, and she extends the offer to each of his men as her gaze travels slowly across their ranks. She thinks she sees some recognition on a few of the young faces, but her eyes are not what they once were. She can find no trace of apprehension on their faces.

That's a good thing, Katara thinks.

The lieutenant takes a step towards her, snarling, "Are you deaf or stupid?"

"Neither yet," Katara says easily, raising her hands in a placating gesture. "But I'm old, and not as quick as I used to be."

He takes another step forward. "Well? Where are the White Lotus? Fled?"

"No, they haven't fled." Katara spreads her hands, and if she isn't as graceful as she used to be, her hands perhaps are cleverer than ever. "But as this is a matter between North and South, they will abide by their neutrality and take no part in the fighting. Unless they are forced to, to protect themselves."

"Cowards, then." He chuckles. "That'll make this easier."

He raises his arm, but before he can signal, Katara says, "What is your name, young man?"

He pauses, staring at her with his cold, cold eyes. "Lieutenant Monloq. And you are...?"

"Katara, of the Southern Water Tribe." She looks around their faces again, and sees it register. Uncertainty spreads through the men behind Monloq, hairline cracks in their discipline. Katara sweeps her arms out, indicating herself and the building behind her. "This is my hospital and refuge. There are no warriors here, or people who will oppose Unalaq's will. There are the sick, in body and spirit, and the frightened. Unarmed men and women. Children. I give you my word that they will not oppose you. In return, I am asking you not to disturb them. Please."

Monloq snorts. "I'm here to bring the White Lotus into custody. I'm here to return any of the traitors who fled the lawful rule of Chief Unalaq to their homes, or to a cell if they resist. I'm here to...invite you to the palace. But I'll drag you there, if I have to. And I'm here to ensure that this place is under the control of Chief Unalaq's peacekeeping force. "

Katara drops her hands into the snow, as if they had suddenly become too heavy too hold up. "There was a time when my word counted for something in the Northern Water Tribe. There was a time when no soldier of the North would offer me violence."

"I have my orders, Katara." Monloq shrugs. "And honestly, I think you've forgotten how much the world has moved on while you've been hiding behind those walls. Your word doesn't mean much anymore. You don't mean much anymore. But we'll be gentle with you, as long as you don't resist." He smirks. "Though I heard that the fight went out of you decades ago. You gave up, even before your body did."

"I have forgotten?" Katara's bunch into fists in the snow. "I gave up?"

"Uh, Lieutenant...?" a nervous voice begins behind him. "Should you be...she's Master _Katara_..."

Several other soldiers begin to speak, but Monloq roars, "Silence! All of you!" 

He doesn't take his eyes off Katara, so he doesn't see how all of his soldiers have moved closer, how they all clumped up behind him, formation forgotten as their discipline splintered.

Katara thinks that that's a good thing.

Monloq suddenly laughs. "What's this? You still have some fight in you, then? I'm warning you, I won't go easy on you. And neither will they, if they know what's good for them. Stand aside and let us do our duty, or you might end up in a cell alongside the traitors you're harbouring."

"No." Katara chooses to stand up, instead, wincing at the pain in her hips and her knees. She raises her arms up to the height of her shoulders, fists still clenched. "No, I would be remiss in my duty of care if I did that."

Monloq shakes his head. "I'm not sure you can afford this much pride, old woman. You're a healer, not a fighter. Last chance to stand aside."

Katara smiles grimly. "Young man, I have been a fighter every day of my life. My battlefield has changed, and I have fought more illnesses and injuries than human opponents in my time, but I _know_ how to fight. I fight my knees every time I stand up. I fight my back every time I lie down. I fight against the cruelty of the blow struck in anger, the flash fire of the fever in a child's body, the agony that seeks to rob peace from the final moments of a life."

Katara unclenches her fists and weaves her arms through a complex pattern before assuming a ready stance. "And I have not forgotten, _child_ , what tyranny and injustice look like. If you imagine that I have ever ceased to oppose them, then everything you have learned about me is a lie. I see you for what you are. I stand ready to oppose you, and I tell you this in truth: you have already lost this fight."

Monloq's face pales, but he raises his arms, takes a step forward and...blinks in surprise when he trips and falls flat on his face.

Katara looks up at his soldiers, nodding in satisfaction when she sees them all similarly struggling to free their feet from the ice she encased them in with her last dramatic gesture. She takes a deep breath then moves through the forms required to raise the ice around their bodies and arms before any of the waterbenders recover balance or sense enough to use their skills against her.

"What...?" Monloq pushes himself up onto his arms, spitting snow out of his mouth. "How did you--"

He gasps when Katara freezes his arms in place.

Katara slowly walks towards him. "I wasn't being figurative when I told you you'd lost," she explains calmly. "I was slowly piling up snow around you and your men's feet throughout our entire talk. Freezing it into place while you were distracted by my speech was simple enough after that. You really should know better than to let an opposing waterbender more their arms so freely when you're standing in snow, you know. My pupils, including Avatar Korra, remember her? Well, none of them would have made that mistake."

Monloq gapes at her. He swallows, tries to speak, but fails. He looks back at his trapped company, curses, and glares up at Katara again. "This changes nothing! You'll have to release us eventually! And we'll bring reinforcements, we'll--"

"Be quiet," Katara says softly, stopping a pace away from him. "I will release you, and you'll take your men and leave this place. You will tell your superiors that you conferred with Master Katara, and that her hospital will offer treatment and refuge for any who require it, whether they are of the North or the South. The White Lotus will remain neutral, as will I."

Monloq's teeth are beginning to chatter, but there's sweat on his brow. "I'll never convince my superiors...Chief Unalaq...of that."

"There are children in my hospital." Slowly, Katara raises her hand and twists her fingers. Monloq's body stops shivering and becomes rigid. Calmly, Katara says, "I will freeze the blood in the body of anyone who comes to this place, and watch their every vein rupture, before I allow harm to come to anyone under my care. Do you think you can convince them of that?"

Monloq nods frantically, when she releases him from the bloodbending.

Katara nods once, then walks past him, and addresses his men. "We are two tribes, perhaps, but we are one family. Try to remember that, in the days to come. Whether you find victory or defeat, we are all weakened. I remember when we were a scattered and divided people. Those are days you do not wish to see again. Go in peace, now. And if you return, bring only peace with you."

Katara melts the ice that was binding them all. She watches as they leave, heads low, feet dragging in the snow, Monloq half-carried between a pair of his men. She watches until they are gone past the limits of her sight, and she watches longer still, and it doesn't feel like waiting.

She sighs as the fight slowly leaves her body at last, taking warmth and certainty with it. "I'm glad you didn't see that, Aang. But I'm much too old to try to fight fair."

It isn't long after that that Branaq rejoins her. "They just...left? And you're...?"

"I'm fine." Katara turns to him and smiles. "Reason prevailed. As long as you and your men stay clear of Unalaq's soldiers, we'll be left alone."

Branaq chews his lip. "I...see. But if Avatar Korra--"

Katara waves her hand. "Patience. This is not our battle. Not now. We have other work to do, you and I. I have patients to see to, and you..."

Branaq stands to attention. "Yes, Master Katara?"

"Have mercy on an old woman. My tolerance for the cold isn't what it used to be. Would you make tea for everyone while I do my rounds?"

Branaq's expression softens. He smiles and offers her his arm. "Of course, Master Katara."

Katara leans on his arm and walks back into the compound, her head high, a faint smile on her lips, even as her feet drag through the snow.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Reading is great! I love reading! If you leave a comment, I'll get to read, too! It's a virtuous cycle! :)
> 
> (Also, if you're here, and a Blue Spirit fan, Chapter 20 will be coming November 12th! Sorry for the wait!)


End file.
